Sohail Mamdani's blog

I usually don't bother replying to this crap but I've had a rough few days and I didn't feel like offering the other cheek, bent over or otherwise.

Still, I thought I was pretty polite. Click on the thumbnail to embiggen.

That was polite, right?

Iran Updates (VIDEO): Live-Blogging The Uprising

The book

From the back cover of “Mother of the Believers: A Novel of the Birth of Islam”

Deep in the heart of seventh-century Arabia, a new prophet named Muhammad has arisen. As his message of enlightenment sweeps through Arabia and unifies the warring tribes, his young wife Aisha recounts Muhammad’s astonishing transformation from prophet to warrior to statesman. But just after the moment of her husband’s greatest triumph – the conquest of the holy city of Mecca – Muhammad falls ill and dies in Aisha’s arms. A young widow, Aisha finds herself at the center of the new Muslim empire and becomes by turns a teacher, political leader, and warrior.

Novelized Islam

By his own admission, Kamran Pasha thinks this book is going to be controversial. “I have no doubt,” he writes in a recent article, “That the book WILL generate controversy and create a passionate debate among both Muslims and non-Muslims, as there are aspects of my novel that will offend people in both communities.”

On this essay…

Over the last couple of weeks or so, I’ve seen a ton of comments hit the site about Ismailism - far more than on just about any topic I’ve ever seen. I’ve watched with some amusement and some bemusement as snark, agitprop, polemic and vitriol seemed to mingle in equal parts with reasoned debate, common sense, rational inquiry and honest questions.

There are more than a hundred comments on the initial blog posting about Ismailism by the user named ‘Haris’ and I’ll honestly admit I’ve not read each one in detail. So, in all honesty, this particular blog entry of mine may not be a full and complete summation of every argument made in that comment chain. It’s not intended to, either. It is, however, intended to make a few points about my faith that are as much about self-examination as they are about my thoughts on the legitimacy of any sect within Islam and the legitimacy of the followers of that sect as Muslims.

Muslims for Progressive Values has an online petition calling for action "Against Domestic Violence, Acid Attacks, Honor Killing, Female Genital Mutilation and Forced Marriage."

The petition is available here: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/mpv-dv

Go and sign it. More voices against this sort of thing is never a bad thing.

Disclaimer: I do some volunteer work for MPV.

The Common Ground News Service posted this series back in 2006 and it's worth looking at.

Special Series: Ijtihad: Interpreting Islamic Law - 2006

God of our weary years, God of our silent tears, thou who has brought us thus far along the way, thou who has by thy might led us into the light, keep us forever in the path we pray. Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met thee, lest our hearts, drunk with the wine of the world, we forget thee.

Shadowed beneath thy hand, may we forever stand, true to thee, oh God, and true to our native land.

Is it me, or could these words be just as home in the Qur'an? FYI, they were from Rev. Joseph E. Lowery's benediction at the Obama inauguration, the end of which was considered somewhat racist (which I thought was maybe a bit borderline, definitely not PC, and just a little funny.

Some of the Israeli actions in Gaza these past weeks have been unconscionable; of that, there is no doubt. But let's not let Hamas off the hook entirely either. The civilians in Gaza are trapped between two intractable foes and suffer the consequences.

I mean, come on! Who hides weapons in a mosque? Crap like this is why Hamas shouldn't be let off the hook either.

This is one of the few times that everything eloquent and erudite that can be said, has been said. So, I'll leave you all with just this bit...

And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

-- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

All I can say is that I'm glad it's not just Al-Jazeera English talking about this sort of thing any more...